Big Ben Tuesday: Jets and Bears Play Scared, Bills Scalp Chiefs

BEN-WHITNEY, Jets, Bears, Colts, Bills, NFL, Meet-The-Matts, Google Alerts, #GoogleAlerts
Wow! What a mix of fans at Soldier Field!

STAMFORD, CT – To coach is this league you’ve got to have some balls. The Jets and Bears played the final minutes of their games scared and lost. The Bills and Josh Allen showed them how to close out a game.

THE J-E-T-S had a fourth and two from the Indianapolis 17 with 3:30 left. They were in the midst of a long, clock-killing drive. The defense had given up a quick TD to the Colts on the previous possession and there was no reason to expect a stop if they kicked a FG to go up by 5. Their record was 3-7.

Instead, Ulbrich played it scared. Perhaps he feared the bad optics of turning it over on downs and then losing on a last second FG. But this was a time to win the game on offense. Close out the game on a high-note and pump some life into your team.

They took the three. Predictably, Indy marched down and easily scored a TD to win the game. That interim tag ain’t coming off, Jeff.

DA BEARS had the ball on the Green Bay 28 with 30 seconds left. They had a time out left. Their kicker Santos is money from inside 40 but doesn’t have the strongest leg. He hasn’t missed a kick inside of 40 all year. Instead of running another play and trying to get a little closer, the Bears let the clock run down and settled for a 47-yard FG.

Eberflus said the Packers were loading the box and didn’t want to risk a fumble. Coaching scared.

Predictably, the long FG was blocked. The Packers said they had noticed the low trajectory on long FG attempts by Santos and took advantage.

THE BILLS, On the other hand, faced a nearly identical situation to the Jets. It was 4th and two from the Chiefs’ 26, with 2:27 left and the Bills up by 2. They could have played it the Jets’ way, kicked the FG and tried to hold on. But McDermott wasn’t going to let Mahomes decide the game again.

He put the ball in Josh Allen’s hands, and the big QB barreled into the end zone for a TD.

You play to win the game.

In the same position as the Jets. Is there any doubt what great coaches like Andy Reid, Bill Belichick, or Sean McVay would have done? That’s why Eberflus and Ulbrich will be defensive coordinators in the SEC next year. Put your balls on the line, take a chance.

Ben Whitney

I know what you’re thinking. It’s easy to go for it when you have Josh Allen, and not a rookie or the shell of Aaron Rodgers. But with the way the Jets’ D was playing, this was an easy choice. Sauce” Gardner should be called “Soy” because that stuff is best kept far away from actual food. And in the Bears’ case, even a QB sneak would have been better than nothing. The guy barely blocked it, even a yard or two could have been the difference.

That’s it for me. Come back tomorrow for Angry Ward.

Share Button
About Ben Whitney 443 Articles
Ben Whitney comes from journalistic stock. Aside from his brothers, rumor has that his great-great grandfather was the youngest brother of Eli Whitney and covered the earliest "rounders" games. Big Ben is also another New York Rugby Club player/pal of Different Matt, Short Matt and Junoir Blaber. He likes film noir discussions, has twin girls and took up ice hockey after retiring from rugby.